Eternal Love - Shahrukh & Gauri Khan

There have been umpteen TV shows, articles, biographies on this couple’s romantic history but the tale still doesn’t stop amazing people.

The story is the stuff of legends and has the ingredients for the making of a perfect Bollywood potboiler – drama, romance, suspense, heartbreak and final triumph. Here’s how it goes...

Shahrukh, a Hindu College grad, saw Gauri Chibbad and fell in love with her instantly. She was everything he aspired to be – cool, classy and sophisticated. Any other guy would’ve left it at that with a girl way out of his league but not Shahrukh. He relentlessly pursued her and finally managed to get her to like him. That was in 1984 and both were so much in love that none even gave a thought to them belonging to different religions and the staunch opposite ones at that.

Image Credit: Ãï¿½ï¿½ BCCL

They had secret rendezvous as they were afraid of Gauri’s parents and how furious they might be considering that she belonged to a typical Hindu Brahmin family. The pleasant lovelorn days passed by until a fateful day when Gauri just disappeared without telling Shahrukh anything of her whereabouts.

Shahrukh, like a typical Scorpio, was an extremely possessive guy and used to hate it if Gauri wore a swimsuit to the pool or even let her hair down occasionally. He wanted all of her to himself and used to burn with jealousy if other boys so much as looked at her. Unsurprisingly Gauri couldn’t take it anymore and decided to go to Mumbai. But Shahrukh, mad as he was for her, decided to go there too as soon as he found out.

After telling his mother and arranging for some money he followed after her without having a clue how he would find her. But he managed to do so after frantic searching and as they say rest is history. At that moment both knew that it would be impossible for them to stay apart.

Image Credit: Ãï¿½ï¿½ BCCL

Gauri’s parents were completely against it, and understandably so, as Shahrukh was as aspiring actor at the time and wasn’t financially stable. But finally Shahrukh managed to convince Gauri’s parents in full ‘DDLJ’ style and they had a court marriage followed by a Hindu as well as Muslim ritual weddings in 1991.

It’s been two decades since and this couple’s been going as strong as ever. There were rumors earlier of their marriage being on the rocks but those were just that – rumors. Gauri has stuck with her husband through thick and thin without losing her identity in the process, a quality rarely found in super successful married couples. She is a producer and an interior designer apart from being a complete style diva. And to top it all, she’s a perfect mommy to her two kids – Aryan & Suhana

Image Credit: Ãï¿½ï¿½ BCCL

When asked what they like about each other the most, Shahrukh says he admires the amount of patience that she has while Gauri says she is proud of how hard working he is and loves his ability to make her laugh, and laugh hard.

In today’s world when happy and successful marriages are few and far between (and more so in the glitz and glamour of Bollywood), this couple gives you hope that if you have your basics right, you could actually star in a ‘forever after’ love story.